University of Wisconsin Law School Professor Alta Charo told a New York Times reporter in an article published January 31, 2007, that the Food and Drug Administration’s newly announced changes to ensure drug safety, were "a good set of first steps towards improving the safety of the drug supply in the United States.
Charo is a co-author of a September 2006 report from the National Academies Institute of Medicine, the most important medical advisory organization in the U.S., which concluded that the F.D.A. is "rife with internal squabbles and hobbled by underfinancing, poor management and outdated regulations," according to the article on page one of the Times, "F.D.A. Widens Safety Reviews on New Drugs."
The Institute of Medicine Report, "The Future of Drug Safety," is available online at http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/26341/37329.aspx .
Charo, a national authority on bioethics, added that she was "‘disappointed’ that the F.D.A. had failed to adopt some of the Institute’s bolder recommendations." Charo holds a joint appointment in the schools of law and medicine at UW-Madison, and teaches courses in bioethics, health law, and food & drug law.
The New York Times article is online at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/washington/31fda.html?_r=1&oref=slogin .
Charo was also quoted in The Washington Post, USA Today, and numerous regional papers. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001496.html for the Washington Post article.
Submitted by on February 9, 2007
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